Why did God allow Genghis Khan?

mindlight

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The early Mongols were actually very inclined toward Christianity. It was the major religion of their empire. Sorghaghtani Beki, mother of Möngke, Kublai, and Hulagu was a Christian and so were some of their wives. Hulagu Khan conquerored Baghdad specifically with aid from Christians. You should read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford, if you are interested in the topic. It's a great read.

The sack of Baghdad marked the end of Islams golden age and interestingly the Christians were spared. After this Islam was in decline until the end of the Christian imperial age. This allowed the reconquest of Spain and meant the colonial era was dominated by Christians.

Thanks for the book recommendarion.

Not sure Christianity was ever the major religion though. There were only 3000 Nestorian Christians in Baghdad and China was Buddhist / Confucian. Many of conquered lands were Muslim
 
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martymonster

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He killed everyone in the flood except 8 people too. And ordered the genocide of the Canaanites. All people in the OT understood God is behind every evil.

Kudos! It's nice to see someone agreeing with scripture, rather defending church doctrine.
 
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martymonster

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The devil also has a say in world events, and he often seems better at placing his men than God does.

He's quite prepared to use force, whereas God usually stays His hand.

It's a bit hard to see God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, giving a blood thirsty tyrant like Genghis Khan the "go for it" command. When Christ saw someone in need, He tried to help. Genghis Khan came to destroy.

From Wikipedia -

And that was just the Iranian Plateau.

I can easily see the devil using such a tyrannical leader. We may think he's a defeated enemy, but he's got a lot of power in this world.

For an example of the kind of world the devil would like, just revisit the Nazi concentration camps.

Yet oddly enough, even the devil has a job to do. I asked my old Presbyterian pastor once what God made the devil for?

He thought about it and then sort of shrugged. "Oh, he's got a job to do I suppose."

I suppose that ultimately it's all under God's control and He bears ultimate responsibility.

It's His plan, whatever we might think of it, and sometimes I don't like it much.


Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

This passage in Job is a demonstration of how Satan does what God wants. Satan does nothing without God's say so. It's not one or the other, who is responsible, it's both.
 
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Archivist

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The OP missed the obvious choice. God permitted Genghis Khan because without him there could have been no Kublai Khan and Coleridge never would have never had the inspiration to write his poem about Xanadu.
 
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Maria Billingsley

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Assuming God is Sovereign and Almighty the greatest conqueror in history was not just an accident.

So why did God allow Genghis Khan?

Some reasons I have been considering:

1) To establish freedom of religion in much of Eurasia
2) cause of his meritocratic approach to governance
3) To open up silk road from East so that Christendom could become aware of larger world than European Christendom, but also so that judgments like Black Death could pass down it
4) as a rebuke to Chinese racial supremacy attitudes in Song Dynasty
5) As a direct judgment on eurasian pagan tribes that were massacred by Mongols and to clear way for later Christian Russian expansion
6) As a threat reduction to Christendom by massacres of Muslims and force reductions in Muslim world following failure of crusades and diminishment of Byzantine empire

Any ideas?
For the same reason He allowed the serpent in Eden. To test.
Be blessed.
 
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Cis.jd

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Sounds Deistic
it's realistic. God designed reproduction in his creation, and his creation reproduces on their own. People are born and grow in environments and gain experiences that shape their own view and become the identity of the person. We are our own persons, not every persons view and over all life is because of God's direction. God is about relationships and that relationship also involves the other person.
 
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JacksBratt

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Assuming God is Sovereign and Almighty the greatest conqueror in history was not just an accident.

So why did God allow Genghis Khan?

Some reasons I have been considering:

1) To establish freedom of religion in much of Eurasia
2) cause of his meritocratic approach to governance
3) To open up silk road from East so that Christendom could become aware of larger world than European Christendom, but also so that judgments like Black Death could pass down it
4) as a rebuke to Chinese racial supremacy attitudes in Song Dynasty
5) As a direct judgment on eurasian pagan tribes that were massacred by Mongols and to clear way for later Christian Russian expansion
6) As a threat reduction to Christendom by massacres of Muslims and force reductions in Muslim world following failure of crusades and diminishment of Byzantine empire

Any ideas?
Are you asking "why did God allow him to do the things he did" in respect to what did it do to the events on this earth that would not have happened if he had not allowed it?

Or.

Are you asking why God allowed such an evil person to do all the evil that he did?
 
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Mark Quayle

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That leaves you open to the view that God Himself actively perpetrated various acts of evil by the Mongols. Allowed works better with scripture.
No, actually, it does not. You seek to hold God to our moral convictions. He is not us.
 
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Mark Quayle

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That was the wrath of God carrying out divine justice.

God was merciful to the Canaanites and gave them approximately 600 years to repent as he said to Abraham that his descendants would spend 400 years enslaved as the "sin of the Amorites was not yet full".

When the time came that God determined to enact justice, he did.

The justice and wrath of God is not evil. To say so is not to understand who God is. It may be violent.....but it is not evil.

To say that God CAUSES every kind of evil is to say that he causes men to rape babies. I would think another view of the causes of good and evil should be held.
"Such things must come. But woe to them by which they come." Matthew 18:7
 
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Mark Quayle

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He said their sins were not complete. How is that a chance to repent? BTW repentance is something God grants.
"Chance" is a wonderfully vague term, is it not?
 
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Assuming God is Sovereign and Almighty the greatest conqueror in history was not just an accident.

So why did God allow Genghis Khan?

Some reasons I have been considering:

1) To establish freedom of religion in much of Eurasia
2) cause of his meritocratic approach to governance
3) To open up silk road from East so that Christendom could become aware of larger world than European Christendom, but also so that judgments like Black Death could pass down it
4) as a rebuke to Chinese racial supremacy attitudes in Song Dynasty
5) As a direct judgment on eurasian pagan tribes that were massacred by Mongols and to clear way for later Christian Russian expansion
6) As a threat reduction to Christendom by massacres of Muslims and force reductions in Muslim world following failure of crusades and diminishment of Byzantine empire

Any ideas?
Unfortunately, nobody can speak for God regarding this other than to offer opinions. A better question is, "Why did God allow you and me?" Everybody in history can have this question asked of them. I believe once we understand those things He has revealed to us in the Bible, and through our faith in Jesus Christ, the answers to questions like this will reveal themselves, or we will discover the answer is not necessary.
 
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mindlight

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Are you asking "why did God allow him to do the things he did" in respect to what did it do to the events on this earth that would not have happened if he had not allowed it?

Or.

Are you asking why God allowed such an evil person to do all the evil that he did?

Genghis Khan was not all evil. The loyalty he inspired would not have been possible if he had been. The Op is focused on the fruit of his reign and that of the Mongol Khans till Kublai Khan after him. It seems to me that he shaped the modern world and that the church was a major beneficiary of his life. In this I see Divine purpose enacted through this remarkable mans life.
 
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mindlight

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Unfortunately, nobody can speak for God regarding this other than to offer opinions. A better question is, "Why did God allow you and me?" Everybody in history can have this question asked of them. I believe once we understand those things He has revealed to us in the Bible, and through our faith in Jesus Christ, the answers to questions like this will reveal themselves, or we will discover the answer is not necessary.

We can test the signs, discern the fruit, look back with the 20 20 vision of those who have the wider picture. To seek God in the mess of human history and His Story in the human saga is a part of our own reaching out for him also
 
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The Liturgist

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The early Mongols were actually very inclined toward Christianity. It was the major religion of their empire. Sorghaghtani Beki, mother of Möngke, Kublai, and Hulagu was a Christian and so were some of their wives. Hulagu Khan conquerored Baghdad specifically with aid from Christians. You should read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford, if you are interested in the topic. It's a great read.

Indeed, the Church of the East which today exists only in Iraq, Iran and the diaspora, and some convert communities in India which were part of it historically before the Portuguese colonization, did expand at its height into Mongolia and Tibet, right across Central Asia. Unfortunately Tamerlane killed most of them, in the largest genocide of Christians since the great persecution instigated by Diocletian, from which the Coptic Orthodox Church derives their calendar epoch.
 
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Bob Crowley

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Genghis Khan was a brutal butcher. It amazes me to see Christians trying to justify his butchery, as though his cruelties favoured the Christian Church.

In fact he didn't really care about other people's religion, and was tolerant of the lot.

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-genghis-khan#:~:text=He was responsible for the,at somewhere around 40 million.

While it’s impossible to know for sure how many people perished during the Mongol conquests, many historians put the number at somewhere around 40 million

Even Hitler only managed around 50 million and that included combatants and citizens of all nations that were involved, with modern arms.

Why not justify Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein? No doubt they left long term results behind, the end of which we don't know yet.

But apparently they were instruments in God's hands, and the devil had nothing to do with any of them.
 
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Assuming God is Sovereign and Almighty the greatest conqueror in history was not just an accident.

So why did God allow Genghis Khan?

Some reasons I have been considering:

1) To establish freedom of religion in much of Eurasia
2) cause of his meritocratic approach to governance
3) To open up silk road from East so that Christendom could become aware of larger world than European Christendom, but also so that judgments like Black Death could pass down it
4) as a rebuke to Chinese racial supremacy attitudes in Song Dynasty
5) As a direct judgment on eurasian pagan tribes that were massacred by Mongols and to clear way for later Christian Russian expansion
6) As a threat reduction to Christendom by massacres of Muslims and force reductions in Muslim world following failure of crusades and diminishment of Byzantine empire

Any ideas?
God certainly uses the wicked to benefit the elect, although it is not always readily apparent at the time. By opening Europe up to Asia, which at the time was scientifically more advanced, God set in motion the reformation which was to come several hundred years later.
 
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Neostarwcc

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God allows and turns all evil into good. If Genghis Khan didn't exist the Mongolian empire probably wouldnt have existed or would have died out a lot longer before it did. God wanted Christianity to spread t hroughout the world and like someone mentioned there were a few Khans after Genghis who were in fact Christians. Just because an entire empire isn't Christian like the Byzantine empire for example doesn't mean that some of their main leaders aren't important in the worldwide spread of Christianity that we see today. Today, there isn't really a country that does not have Christians in them. Even China and Japan has some C hristians.

Plus if Ghenghis never existed I wouldn't have a favorite major leader from our history aside from Atilla. Both of them are my favorites. Atilla was WAAAAAY more brutal than Ghenghis Khan.

If anything, ask why Atilla was born.
 
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mindlight

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Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

This passage in Job is a demonstration of how Satan does what God wants. Satan does nothing without God's say so. It's not one or the other, who is responsible, it's both.

In the context of the Asia of the time who was the righteous man, comparable to Job, who was being tested? There are some long term strategic benefits to the Mongol expansion. There is also a considerable amount of judgment on Muslims and pagans especially. But if this was about testing the church how come most of them in Asia remained heretic Nestorians after this testing and were then wiped out by Tamerlane in the next century.
 
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mindlight

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Indeed, the Church of the East which today exists only in Iraq, Iran and the diaspora, and some convert communities in India which were part of it historically before the Portuguese colonization, did expand at its height into Mongolia and Tibet, right across Central Asia. Unfortunately Tamerlane killed most of them, in the largest genocide of Christians since the great persecution instigated by Diocletian, from which the Coptic Orthodox Church derives their calendar epoch.

There were only 3000 Christians in Baghdad when the Mongols took it, out of a population of maybe a million. Nestorianism had a long history in Persia. But it seems that after the Mongol empire broke up there was a catastrophic persecution of Christians by Muslims. Also Christian Kingdoms like Armenia and Georgia entered a prolonged period of suffering in this time which continued into the Ottoman massacres of the twentieth century. That the Syriac and other churches survived Tamerlane is remarkable and that they endure even till today even more so given the level of hatred towards Christ in that region down the centuries.
 
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mindlight

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Genghis Khan was a brutal butcher. It amazes me to see Christians trying to justify his butchery, as though his cruelties favoured the Christian Church.

In fact he didn't really care about other people's religion, and was tolerant of the lot.

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-genghis-khan#:~:text=He was responsible for the,at somewhere around 40 million.



Even Hitler only managed around 50 million and that included combatants and citizens of all nations that were involved, with modern arms.

Why not justify Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein? No doubt they left long term results behind, the end of which we don't know yet.

But apparently they were instruments in God's hands, and the devil had nothing to do with any of them.

The devil can be a pawn of Gods purpose. That he rants and raves and performs acts of unspeakable evil does not detract from that. The devil wanted Jesus crucified and look how that turned out for him!

Most of those who died at the early Mongol hands were not Christians, who were not in the dominant positions in the countries that were conquered. Christians went on to serve as ministers of his empire and were spared in the massacre of Muslims at Baghdad. It was the Mongols and Turkmen that converted to Islam that became the real scourge of the church. Tamerlane especially.

I am not suggesting that Genghis Khan was a good guy only that he ended up being used to achieve strategic goals of which he had no comprehension. But also he was not that bad towards Christians. Most of the 40 million he murdered followed false religions or paganism. As I said the subsequent force reduction of forces loyal to Satan was a game changer for later world historical events.

Even Tamerlane who was evil by any definition except perhaps a Sunni Muslim one took out the Ottomans for instance arguably delaying their conquest of Constantinople by 30 years. In that time the Catholic church ended its 3 pope schism and various other events occurred across Europe. So when Constantinople finally fell Western Europe and Christendom was better prepared to meet the Ottoman invasions. Things could have been a lot worse for Christendom were it not for the Mongols.
 
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